Lubricating system



= Aug. 145, 1923.

C. A. PARSONS ET AL LUBRICATING SYSTEM Filed March 29, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 l1? veffibr-sz Char/es Alger/10m Para-ans, Jfaw/ey Fm/1% Coo? ,Aug. M, 1923. 11,465,371

' c. A. PARSONS ET AL LUBRICATING SYSTEM Filed March 29, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 w Fig.4;

. Patented Aug. 14, 1923. i

AND LOUIS MORTIMER DOUGLAS, 0F'NEW'CASTLE-UPON TYNE, ENGLAND; SAID DOUGLAS AND COOK AS- SIGN'ORS TO SAID PARSQNS.

Applieation'filed March 29, 1921. Serial No. 456,643.

To'all whom it mag concern: I

Be it known that we,-CHA zLns A enRNoN PARSONS, STANLEY SMITH Goon, and LOUIS MORTIM R DOUGLAS, allv subjects of the King. of Great Britain and Ireland, and residing at Heaton lVorks, Newcastle-upon lyne, ;,in

the county of Northumberland, England,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in' Lubricating Systems," of which the tollowingiisa specification for which we have filed applications in Great Britain underNo. 30,370, Decemberv 4,1919, and No; 3,372, January 27,1921. I

The present invention relates to systems such, for example, as those described in Britishv patent application No. 1862 of 1919, in which a common pump is employed to pump .oil through two or more paths. In such installations where oil-coolers are arranged in parallel in .difierent paths the coolers are so designed that-in addition to reducing the temperature of the oil by the desired amount they oppose such. relative resistance to the flow of the oil as toobtain the proper relation between the quantities of oil passing through the respective coolers, that is to say, with the required pressures at their outlets. f

It has been foundinpraetice, however, that through various causes these relative quantities are not as designed or required, and the resistances to flow through the coolers are liable to vary. owing to variation in the quality and condition of the oil, or,most important oi all,

owing to chokin The object of the present invention is to.

ensure that the relation between :the quantities passing through the two coolers 'will irrespective of the resistances of the coolers.

The invention consists in the employment in the oil circulating system. of a piston.

valve which is responsive to the pressureof the oil in the discharge from each cooler and is so actuated that when the prcssurein the discharge from one cooler falls below the pressure in the discharge from the other cooler, the supply in the latter cooler is restricted, while the supply to the former is increased. v The invention further consists 1n constructing the valve in such a manner that when the supply to one cooler has been re-;

stricted to a predetermined extent, any fun nnenrcnrrne SYSTEM.

of this supply will cause the other cooler to be by-passed, so that in the event of complete or very considerableclioking of either orboth coolers, either or both of them will be automatically by-passed and a proper quantity of oil supplied to the system.

The invention further consists in the llllj proved means for controlling the flow of oil in lub icating systems hereinafter described. Referring to the accompanying draw- 1n s z- *igure 1 is a plan view of one form of valve employed showing the oil outlets.

Figure 2 is longitudinal section of the valve taken at right angles to Figure l and indicating diagrammatically the pipe con nections to the coolers.

Figures 8, .4, and 5, illustrate modified forms of valve. t

Figure 6 shows diagrammatically a com plete lubricating system indicating the manner ofconnecting the valve.

In carrying the invention into effect according to the example shown in Figures 1 and 2, in which a common pump delivers oil to two different systems through two coolers 1 and 2 in parallel, there is provided a valve comprising two pistons 3 and 4 of the same diameter connected bya stem 5, which valve can slide freely in a cylindrical casing 6. Oil from-the pump is-admitted by an inlet'rto the central portion of the casing between the pistons and l and passed to the cool ers through apertures 8 and 9 in the central portion of the casing. @ne aperture 8 or set of apertures is partially covered by the left handipiston 3 and leads to the cooler 1., while the other aperture 9 or set of apertures is partially covered by the right hand piston land leads to the other cooler 2. The left hand end of the valve casing is connected by a pipe 10 to the oil outlet from cooler 1, so that the outer end of the piston 3 is subjected .to the pressure in the system supplied through cooler 1, and, similarly, the right hand end of the valve casing is connected by a pipe, 11 to the oil outlet from cooler 2.

acting on its outer ends, that is, difference in the pressures at the cooler outlets, causes the valve to move towards the low pressure end. It the quantity of oil received by one system, say, that supplied through cooler l, is, defective, the pressure at the outlet'oi this cooler will fall and the higher pressure in the outlet from cooler 2 will move the valve to the left. The effect of this movement will be that the extent to which the piston 3 covers the aperture 8 leading to cooler 1 will hereduced and the open area through the aperture thereby increased, while the extent to which the piston l covers the aperture 9 leading to cooler 2 will be increas d, thereby reducing the open area. in consequence, the proportion of the total quantity passing through cooler 1 will be increased and the variation will proceed until the outletpressures from the two coolers are again equal. A detective supply through the cooler 2 would, of course, be rectified. by the valve moving in the reverse direction.

The apertures 8 and 9 may bemade of any shape but are preferably of such form as to give a large IHOVQHLi'it to the valve and of such area that the pressure drop across them is small wien the valve is in the normal position. A shown, the shape and size of the apertures may be determined by diaphragms 1.2 and 13 of any desired form.

The pistons are provided with by-pass apertures 1s: and 15 leading from the central space between the pistons through the cylindricalsurfaces of the pistons. Each bypas aperture is normally covered by the cylinder casing but is so disposed in rela-- tion to a recess 16 or 17 in the cylinder casing that when the inlet aperture to one cooler has been restricted to a predetermined extent by one piston, the by-pass aperture in the other piston is over the recess which communicates with the outlet from the other in the cylindrical surface oi the cylinder :asing (3 near one end, say the left hand end, connected by a pipe 20 or the like to the other end of the casing, that is, to the outlet from the cooler 2. This aperture 1g normally covered by the left hand piston 3. but 11 the supply through cooler 2 is defective and the valve moves 15 from the inlet chamber of the valve to' the outlet from cooler 2.

It will be seen that the oil'which passes through this additional by-pass 19, which is preferably arranged to operate before the by-pass L5, is oil which has passed through a cooler, and this additional bypas can be provided in connection with either or both coolers. r

According to another inodiiication, the aperture, through which oil passes to the cooler inlets, may be provided. in the inner ends of the piston instead of in the cylinder casing. A valve constructed in this manner is illustrated in Figure 4k in which the pistons-3 and 4tare formed with slots '21. of any suitable shape communicating with nular spaces 22 formed in the cylinder (5 and leading to the outlets 8 and 9 respectively. Instead of the by-pass apertures l i and lagrooves 23 are formed in the pistons to establish communication between the annular spaces 22. and recesses 2 Oil can thus beby-passed from the central space of the cylinder 6 through the slots 21, annulus 22, groove 23, and recess 24 to either of the pipes 10 01711..

Figure 5 illustrates a form of valve applicable to the casein which the whole or the oil is passed through ZtPliIDZLTy cooler l,

that destined for the sprayers also circulating through a supplementary cooler 2. In this case the inlet 7* is connected to a point between the coolers and in thenormal action of the valve only oil for the bearings passes through the valve. Communicarion between thecentral space of "he casing (i and the outlet 8 is by means of apertures O11 i) in the cylinder within which the pist fits. The normal pressure from the sp system acting onthe on side of ti 7 piston a sufiices to keep it in the position shown. If, however, this. pressure drops owing to insufiicient supply through the cooler 2,'movem'ent of the valve to the right takes place thereby causing av reduction of the open area through the apertures 25. and consequently an increased pre; in pipe 7 and an increased flow through cooler 2. When the valve has moved to the right by a predetermined amount groove 26 uncovered and oil thereby admitted from the central space past the piston t directly tothe sprayer system. Should the supply thus obtained not he suiiicient a lay-pass pipe 27 maybe added bywhich oil passing through the apertures is also supplied to the sprayers through a groove 28, an aperture 29 and the piston 4C. This valve may be usefully employed in the case. in which there is a gravity tank inthe bearing circuit only. In that arrangement when the pumps are stopped, oil is supplied from the gravity tank through the pipe 8, apertures 25 and groove 26, or via the bypass 27 to the Sprayers. V

Figure 6 illustrates the application of a valve of the type illustrated in Figure 2 tea complete lubrication system in which two distinct supplies of oil passed respec tively through coolers l and 2 are delivered. The oil from both systems drains'into a common tank 30 from which it is delivered to the distributing valve 6 by duplicate pumps 31, 32 through filters 33. From the outlets 8 and 9 the oil is respectively led to the coolers to the'systems to be supplied by pipes 86, 37. The outlet from the cooler 1 is also provided with a connectionBS to gravity tanks 39 from which by a pipe 40 the system connected to the cooler 1 may be fed. A. by-pass 41 between thepipes 34 and S6 is also provided so that the cooler 1 may if required be cut out of action and oilsupplied directly from the valve 6 either to the gravity tanks 39 or to the lubrication system.

It will be seen that the invention is also applicable to installations in which there sistance to new through one systemis very small in relation to that through the other system, as, for instance, when a cooler is providedin one of the pathsonly. In such cases the valve will automatically maintain such resistance to fiow through the sys tem without a cooler as to maintain equal oil pressures in the two systems supplied.

' The control valve may bedesigned in several ways to give different discharge pressures. F or instance, one of the-piston ends may be stepped and the annular spaces between the steps connected to. atmosphere,

. ply branches, a distributing valve in circuit therewith having a common inlet and a divided outlet, and reciprocable means within the valve actuated by a differential pressure in the outlet branches whereby when the pressure in one branch falls below that in the other the supply to the latter is restricted and that to the former is increased.

2. The system of claim 1 with two coolers for the oil in circuit, said coolers having an inlet and an outlet, said valve being responsively connected to the outlets of said coolers whereby when the pressure in the discharge from one cooler falls below the pressure in the discharge from the other cooler, the supply in the latter cooler is restricted, while the supply to the former is increased.

3. In a lubrication system as set forth in claim 1, in which the resistance to the flow of oil is normally greater through one path than through the other path, passing only the supply to the latter path through the distributing valve, the normal supply passing directly to the other path.

In a lubrication system as set forth in claim 1, in which the resistance to the flow of oil is normally greater through one path than through the other path, passing only the supply to the latter path through the distributing valve, the normal supply passing directly to the other path, making the distributing valve responsive to the pressure at a point in the path of great r resistance in such a manner that reduction in pressure at this point causes increase of pressure at the inlet to the path.

5. A distributing valve comprising in combination a casing, two pistons connected together and fitting within said casing, inlet and two outlets communicating with the space between the pistons, a bypass in each piston and recesses in the casing adapted to cooperate with said bypasses.

6. A valve comprising a casing fitted with two pistons connected by a common stem, an

oil inlet communicating with the space between the pistons and two outlets also com municating with this space, each outlet adapted to be partially or completely closed by one of the pistons, substantially as described.

7. In a lubricating ystem, in combination a.distributing valve having a casing, two pistons connected together fitted within said casing, an inlet in said casing communicating with the space between the pistons, and two outlets in said casing communicating with the same space, two coolers, pipes fitted between the outlets of the distributing valve and the inlets of the coolers, and pipes leading from the outlets of the coolers to the space in the casing at the outer end of the pistons.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification.

CHARLES ALGERNON PARSONS. STANLEY SMITH COOK. LOUIS MORTIMER DOUGLAS. 

